Mackintosh Hut, lower Kaiarahi Track, Saturday 31 August 2024
Banner Photo: Crossing the Kaiarahi Creek
The last day of winter brought with it typical strong winds and rain at lunchtime. It wasn’t going to affect the day party too much as we were staying low-level, from Mackintosh to Lakes car parks. The weekend party came the same way, but were heading for the tops via Mackintosh Spur.
The day party at Mackintosh Hut (minus Donna and Juliet)
There were a couple of new people out today plus several who had not done the newly cut track from the bridge over the Tutaekuri River, bypassing the shingle slip damage from Gabrielle. This new track is steep and slippery at first before levelling out a little, making it ten to 15 minutes longer when you finally emerge onto the original Mackintosh Track.
Unfortunately, drama occurred only ten minutes from the car park. Donna slipped, tumbled and rolled about 15 metres down the bank, coming to rest against a tree, miraculously only injuring her foot/ankle. Bumped and bruised, she recovered and along with Juliet made their way back to the van, where another drama awaited. They couldn’t open the lock box to retrieve the van keys! They were eventually rescued by a man out tramping with his daughter, who just happened to work for a security firm, and managed to prise open the box.
Part of the new track to Mackintosh Hut, the flat bit
After driving to the Lakes car park, Juliet waited out a shower of rain, made Donna comfortable, then walked in and met us at the Kaweka Hut site.
Meanwhile the rest of the party had regrouped at Mackintosh Hut where the advanced and overnight groups learned of Donna’s fall and that Campbell had also taken a tumble. Apparently his was only a 5.5, not a patch on Donna’s impressive 9.5 score.
After leaving Mackintosh Hut, a heavy shower of rain had us scrambling for our coats, and leaving the clay areas and small descents slippery. Thick manuka regrowth in places makes walking tricky, and the gouged-out side-streams make some hard to get in and out of.
The view southwest towards Otupae
We crossed the low Tutaekuri River, made our way up the last climb of the day, arriving at the Lakes car park six hours after leaving the Mackintosh car park. After checking on Donna, we all piled into the van and with the sun out again headed home, everyone happy with the day’s outing.
Trampers: Campbell Living, Michele Ericksen, Shona Tupe, Juliet Gillick, Mary Campbell, Elly Govers, Tess Redgrave, Amelia Moorhead, Julian Phillips, Selina Chilton, Donna Weston and reporter Alison Greer
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